Picking Up PC's

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Quickly Obsolete Electronics Recycled

On Christmas morning, millions of Americans took the wrappings
off spanking new, faster than ever personal computers, fancy fax
machines, electronic game stations, cell phones and all manner of
high-tech toys. For many people, those were updated versions of
equipment they already had and before Christmas dinner hit the table,
the old PCs and other devices were unplugged and piled in the corner,
fossils of the digital age.

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That has created a major problem in the United States. Tons and
tons of high-tech junk - some experts say 75 percent of all the
high-tech equipment made in the last 10 years - is piling up in
landfills, attics and basements across the country.

Until now there has been no efficient way to dispose of most old
electronic equipment, but efforts are under way to capture and recycle
old computers and other electronic gear. Old computer systems are
being updated and resold; others are dismantled and the metals and
plastics recycled. Some firms have begun to offer simple ways to
upgrade older PCs, and others are working to develop new technology
that is easily updated, or taken apart and recycled.

The pace of innovation not only drives the development of technology,
but also the increasingly rapid obsolescence of PCs and other electronic
gear. Some experts estimate that a new PC purchased this year will
be overtaken by better technology within 18 months.

"We are getting better at making machines that last longer and
longer, but because technology is moving so fast, they become obsolete
long before they wear out," said Nabil Nasar, director of the National
Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery at the Rochester
Institute of Technology. "This is a serious problem" he said. "There
are a lot of products not only creating a problem with pollution,
but you're also taking up lots of natural resources."

Computer monitors have lead embedded in the glass to protect users
from harmful radiation. Central processing units (CPUs) that contain
the processing chip and disk drives have traces of toxic chemicals
like mercury and chromium.

While some equipment can be donated to schools and charities, technology
is advancing so quickly that even non-profit-organizations are spurning
offers of older computers. And the problem is expected to get worse.
According to National Safety Council estimate made in June, only
11 percent of the personal computer processors that becamse obsolet
in 1998 were recycled and that by 2,002, about 3.4 million more
PCs will become obsolete than will be shipped by manufacturers.

A growing number of companies are buying old computer equipment,
primarily from businesses that replace technology every year or
two, and upgrading the gear, or just refurbishing it and reselling
it to people and companies that do not need the latest bells and
whistles. Like other companies, Comdisco Inc. takes older computers
with 133 megahertz and 166 megahertz processing chips and replaces
them with faster processors and then sells those machines into a
secondary market, said Michael Ross, and executive vice-president
of the Rosemont, Calif.,-based technical services company. While
he would not be specific about how much Comdisco makes reselling
computers and other office electronics, Ross said that the business
amounted to "tens of millions" of dollars.

In January a company called Powerleap, Inc. will start selling
motherboards that can be plugged into the back of older computers
to bring them up to present standards of processing speed, greater
memory, larger hard drives and the latest in audio-visual performance.
For less that $400, an old, sluggish antique can become a 500 megahertz
machine with 128 megs of RAM.

But recycling computer parts remains difficult because there is
not readily available system for people to use if they want to junk
the old machines. Part of the problem with recycling most modern
electronic equipment is the nearly univeral practice of using modular
components that are practically impossible to take apart without
damaging the machines. As part of her research into new designs,
Stewart is looking into a rectro technology. "I'm thinking a lot
about going back to screws," she said.